UPDATE from the CTPost: Small businesses aren’t usually the ones to stick their necks out for the cause of environmental activism, but 100 of them in Bridgeport, most of them little shops and restaurants, signed a petition this week urging the shutdown of the Bridgeport Harbor Power Station’s coal-fired boiler.

Members of the Healthy Connecticut Alliance presented an oversized list of more than 100 businesses in the city that signed a petition reading: “We call on PSEG’s CEO Ralph Izzo to give our children and elderly clean air to breathe by retiring the plant and revitalizing the community.”

For more on this story, visit: 100 small business sign on in opposition to coal plant – Connecticut Post.

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If you live near Bridgeport get more involved with the campaign – connect with Healthy CT Alliance on facebook.

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“A Better Future for Bridgeport,” read the banner spread out in front of the march through downtown Bridgeport Saturday.

About 25 people gathered in the early afternoon to rally for an end to the Bridgeport Harbor Station Coal Plant. The residents and protestors met downtown for introductions and information about the hazards of the coal-fired power station. They then headed outside, despite the ambient air quality alert in effect, and marched through Bridgeport.

The group held signs reading “Retire Coal – Revitalize Bridgeport” and “I Thought All Dinosaurs Were Extinct,” portraying the coal plant as a dinosaur, due to its age and inefficiency. They led chants, shouting “PSEG – Bring us back clean energy” and “Coal is over, coal is done, no more asthma – only fun!” in both English and Spanish. The marchers stopped on the steps of city hall to hear a Bridgeport resident speak about the harsh health effects of the coal plant and why it must be retired, as well as to sing about the plant.

The protestors continued to the entrance of the Bridgeport Harbor Station, and they stopped right by its gates for more rallying. At the plant, the people heard speeches, watched a street theater performance, sung more music and participated in a call and response.

The Bridgeport Harbor Station coal plant has been ranked the fifth most environmentally unjust coal plant in the United States, according to a news release submitted to Environmental Headlines following the event.

Within one mile of the plant, there are six schools and the average income is $11,400. Each year, the coal plant has been the cause of one death, two heart attacks and fifteen asthma attacks. The coal itself is imported from Indonesia, displacing native peoples, strip mining, and clear-cutting forests that offset greenhouse gas emissions as well as using up even more fuel for transportation. The power station has been in operation forty-four years.

The rally was jointly organized by the Healthy Connecticut Alliance and Climate Summer, an internship program that engages young adults to bicycle around New England and work with communities against climate change. Both organizations believe in a rapid and responsible transition away from “deadly energy.”

According to Climate Summer participant Dan Blaustein-Rejto (Woodstock, NY), “deadly energy is energy, typically created from fossil fuels coal, oil and natural gas, that causes deaths by fundamentally changing our climate.”

The permit for Bridgeport Harbor Station expired in Feb. 2012 and the company has applied for the renewal of its operating permit.

If the plant were to be retired, Connecticut would be the first state to go “beyond coal.” The Healthy Connecticut Alliance and Climate Summer hope that this rally will both be instrumental in retiring the plant. For the Climate Summer riders, our dependence on coal is one that has harsh impacts on everyone.

“We are here in Bridgeport fighting this injustice because we believe that no one should have to die for us to have energy,” says Climate Summer rider Xhoana Ahmeti (Woodstock, IL).

 

 

See Also:

Some of the dozen or so marchers with Climate Summer reportedly held signs that read “Retire Coal —

Revitalize Bridgeport” and “I Thought All Dinosaurs Were Extinct,” at the coal burning plant just miles from Fairfield. A group of young climate activists reportedly held a rally and march on Saturday at the Bridgeport Harbor Station coal plant to support alternative forms of clean energy and protest the plant’s presence in Connecticut.

For more on this story, visit: Patrick Barnard of the Patch reports: Activists Protest at Coal Burning Plant in Bridgeport – Fairfield, CT Patch.

 

BRIDGEPORT — More than two dozen people — led by the Connecticut Sierra Club — held a rally Saturday to protest the continued use of PSEG’s aging coal-fired power plant in the city.

While past rallies against the plant have led to many arrests, Saturday’s protesters were clearly of a more peaceful disposition.

For more on this story, visit: Activists rally to protest coal-fired power plant – StamfordAdvocate.

 

Retire the Bridgeport Coal Power Plant

For more on this story, visit: Retire the Bridgeport Coal Power Plant | 350 Connecticut.

 

For previous coverage of opposition to the PSEG coal plant, see: http://environmentalheadlines.com/ct/?s=pseg.